Vail Daily letter: Education center at gardens makes sense

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I'm writing today to heartily endorse the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens' request to establish a small education facility on their campus. The establishment of the facility will serve the citizens of Vail and establish a well-thought out and needed on-site connection between the gardens and the community it serves so well.

The American Public Gardens Association represents over 500 gardens and 6,000 individual members. Our vision is "a world where public gardens are indispensable."

Many of our member gardens are small gardens in size and budget, and that makes their connection with the communities they serve that much more vital. The existence of a space where they can conduct classes, workshops, and house cultural displays and exhibitions is so important to a garden becoming recognized as the vital resource for botanical, horticultural, and conservation-stewardship information.

The latter is particularly important. Any buildings or fixed elements that occupy any public garden always rise to the highest standards of stewardship. It is in our nature to do so.

Things like LEED certifications and conscious site placements that provide the least impact on all natural resources are considered minimum standards in our industry for new construction. Stewardship is in our nature and reason for being.

The education facility proposed at Betty Ford Alpine Gardens would certainly be no exception. It will be carefully planned, sited and budgeted for to provide for the maximum community impact, with the absolute least amount of impact on the environment surrounding it.

It is time for the garden to realize its dream, so your community and visitors can better utilize the treasure it has in the garden itself.